Expansions And Contractions: World-Historical Change And The Western Sudan World-System (1200/1000 B.C.–1200/1250 A.D.)* Ray A. Kea part one: history, chronologies, and the new archaeology Introduction By the 12t century a.d. the principal trading centers of the Western Sudan world-system—including Kawkaw/Gao, Tadmakka, Koumbi Saleh, and Tegdaoust/Awdaghast—possessed, in the words of the archaeologist Timothy Insoll, an “Islamic character.” He elaborates on this phenomenon: “Their plans indicate that they exhibit many of the characteristics of the Islamic city or town as is found within the wider Islamic world” (Insoll 1996: 43; also Mauny 1967). What history accounts for the Islamic character of these places, and what pro- cesses, events, and relations generated their development? Recent archaeologi- cal research in West Africa provides some answers. The present study offers a re-interpretation of Western Sudan history based on the recent archaeologi- cal research. Recent archaeology has generated a tremendous amount of new information pertaining to the cultural, economic, political, and social aspects of this history (Bedaux 1972; Vallées du Niger 1993; McIntosh 1995; Pelzer 2000; Ray A. Kea Department of History University of California at Riverside [email protected] http://history.ucr.edu/ * Th is article is a revision of a paper presented at a workshop of the University of California Multi-Campus Research Unit in World History, February –, , abstract: University of California, Irvine. I wish to thank the anonymous reviewer for her/his Archaeological evidence from West of a West African state system played a comments and suggestions. In addition, I wish to extend my gratitude to Ms Linda Africa suggests a process of relatively generative role in the world-historical Bobbitt for preparing the maps. Not least, I would like to thank my wife, Inge, for autochthonous state formation involving development of universal rationality in proof reading the manuscript. unusual forms of urbanization, horse war- Western Afroeurasia, as well as in the journal of world-systems research, x, , fall , – rior aristocracies, craft status groups and intensification of empire formation and http://jwsr.ucr.edu/ commodified trade networks organized monetary integration in the formative era issn 1076–156x by merchant-scholars. The emergence before the rise of European hegemony. © 2004 Ray A. Kea 724 Ray A. Kea Expansions And Contractions Figure 1 – Sudanic Africa and Interaction Networks (8t–10t Century A.D.) What is Sudanic Africa? The 10t century geographer Ishaq ibn al-Husayn offers a suitable historical starting point. He describes it thus: “The land of the Sudan, an extensive country, stretching from the Western Sea [Atlantic Ocean] Gold producing Qayrawan areas Fes to the Red Sea [is] an enormous and important land” (Levtzion and Hopkins Tlemcen Tripoli 2000: 38). Geographically, this vast territory comprises three major ecological Aghmat Barca zones—the Sahara, and, south of it, the semi-arid Sahil and the savanna, or Sijilmasa Ghadames Fostat Waddan Awgila grasslands—and a complex of microenvironments. Africanist scholars divide Asiout the Sahil and grasslands into three macroregions: the Western Sudan (historic Zawila Wahat SAHARA cores: the Upper and Middle Niger Valleys and the Senegal Valley), the Central WESTERN Aswan Sudan (historic core: the Lake Chad basin), and the Eastern Sudan (historic WS SUDAN EASTERN WSa CENTRAL core: the Middle Nile Valley) (see Figure 1). Awdaghost MNV Tadmakka Kawar SUDAN Associated with each macroregion are identifiable world-system forma- Ghana Dongola SV Maranda SUDAN Gao tions (Wilkinson 1993a; Wilkinson 1993b; Wilkinson 1994). Established schol- J-Jeno S-Bara Kukiya arly practice does not accept the Sahara as a historical and social space, hence the salience of a reified and essentialist category like “sub-Saharan Africa” in academic and popular literature. In scholarly studies of world-systems or of the Afro-Eurasian oikumene, Sudanic Africa is seldom, if ever, mentioned. The presumption of this scholarship is that nothing of consequence happened within it and that whatever organized formations it had were completely self- Note: Towns in the Western Sudan world-system are underlined. (Adapted from Mauny 1967) contained (“isolated”) and unchanging (“stagnant”) (e.g., Abu-Lughod 1989; Sanderson 1995; Hall 2000). The present study contravenes conventional Pelzer 2002; Magnavita 2002a; Magnavita 200b; Magnavita and Pelzer 2000). wisdom by including the Sahara as a historical and structural component of the Since archaeological fieldwork is ongoing and continues to bring new data to Western Sudan world-system and by identifying this world-system as a histori- light, the interpretations and conclusions presented here cannot be considered cally dynamic part of the oikumene. definitive. A world-system can be defined as a formation organized around stratified, In this study I focus on a polycentric Western Sudan world-system i.e., hierarchical, and non-hierarchical societal interaction networks, strata, between ca.1200/1000 b.c. and ca.1200/1250 a.d. and the ecological, historical, consisting of core, semi-periphery, and periphery. Intermediate territories are and structural processes that shaped the cultural-ideological, social, political, identified in analytically different ways: hinterland, frontier, and margin. The demographic, and settlement formations and structures of the system. I com- complexities are evident when we look at centers and peripheries of innova- pare the archaeologically defined historical phases of the Western Sudan’s dif- tion and recognize frontiers of economic specialization. In developing the idea ferentiated formations—urban, cultural, socioeconomic, and political—with of regional world-systems, Christopher Chase-Dunn and his colleagues have the chronology assigned to the Afro-Eurasian oikumene by Barry Gills and identified different kinds of societal or interacting networks to account for the Andre Gunder Frank (see below). In contrast to standard political histories, allocation of resources and the distribution of goods and services. They include the current study examines the dynamic of the great state systems in terms the following: (1) bulk-goods exchange networks (BGNs); (2) political-military of a macroregional world-system and the historical conjunctures, interaction interaction networks (PMNs); (3) prestige-goods networks PGNs); and (4) networks, and processes of surplus appropriation and political centralization information-cultural networks (ICNs).¹ The different networks indicate differ- that defined it. Characteristically, the state systems had ruling dynasties, spe- cialized functionaries, armies, and revenue systems (cf. Levtzion 1980, chapter 2; Levtzion 1985: 132–38; Levtzion and Hopkins 2000: 77–83; McIntosh 1998, chapter 10). ¹. Th ese and other abbreviations in the list on page . 726 Ray A. Kea Expansions And Contractions ent scales of socio-spatial organization and different but overlapping functions Figure 2 – Ghana/Wagadu and Kawkaw/Gao tributary systems and interacting (Chase-Dunn and Hall 1992; Chase-Dunn and Hall 1995; Chase-Dunn and networks and Lower Niger basin centers. Hall 1997; Hall 1996). The organization of the Western Sudan world-system depended on these interacting networks—the allocation of resources and the Andalusia distribution of goods and services. But the networks themselves depended on specific historical forms of labor comprising hierarchically and non-hierarchi- Toledo cally organized populations as well as modes of production of the material and Cordoba & Madimat intellectual (symbolic) conditions of life. The histories of these networks and al-Zahra modes have yet to be written. A first step towards understanding them has Almeria Tahert Qayrawan been made by Africanist archaeologists whose fieldwork over the past thirty N Ifriqiya years has focused on developing regional surveys over broad areas of the Sudan’s Tripoli 0 500 Km Marrakesh macroregions. Wargala What is the Western Sudan world-system and when did it emerge? This Sijilmassa world-system can be defined as a trans-regional, polycentric formation com- Ghadames To Egypt prised of interaction networks, urban-based settlement hierarchies, different kinds of political domains and regimes of surplus accumulation, economic zones, production networks, social and geographical divisions of labor, cultural spheres, and markets. Four core zones can be readily identified (see Figure 1 Teghaza above): To Egypt (1) the Western Sahara (WS); (2) the Middle Niger Valley (MNV), with the following sub-divisions: (a) Walata Tadmakka R Bamba/Tirekka? Azelik/Takedda .S Tegdaoust the Upper Inland Delta; (b) the Lower Inland Delta; and (c) the Lakes e Marendet n Takrur e Gourma Gao g Koumbi Saleh al Rharous Bentia/Kukiya Lake Chad Region and the Niger Bend; Dia Jenne-Jeno ger Ni (3) the Western Sahil (WSa); Bambuk R. i Gold Field an R. B (4) the Senegal Valley (SV). Sirba Valley Gold Workings I suggest that this world-system emerged in its urban form around the mid- Bure Ife Gold Field Owo second millennium b.c. The initial core zone appeared in the southern reaches S. Eredo Igbo-Ukwu of the Western Sahara about this time. In the early first millennium b.c. other Benin urban cores (or heartlands) appeared, specifically in the Western Sahil, the MNV, and the SV. Associated with the core areas were dependent territories (e.g., hinterlands and peripheries). Adapted from Insoll 2000 The MNV,